Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Day 5

Tuesday, May 1, 2007Happy Law Day! That greeting was just a distraction so I wouldn't have to announce that my child is not a star. She does not get to go to the head of the class. The Day 5 photo looks very much like Day 4, only less enthusiastic.According to Rose, by Day 5, if the starter is active, it will have increased in volume to 3 or 4 cups. Mine is still bubbling, but she is more sluggish than active, and has definitely not increased to 3 cups. Rose says that if your starter is not active, don't give up hope--just keep feeding it until it gets active. Perhaps my starter is just a late bloomer.

5 comments:

Do not get discouraged! On the fourth day my starter had tripled and I was so pleased with myself I cannot tell you. Then the next day I fed it as usual and it wasn’t at all responding as it had the day before. I was so sure that something had gone terribly wrong and I thought that’s what you get for being so smug. I wrote to Rose with my concerns and she assured me that it will come to life and to be patient or as she put it “a watched kettle never boils”. If I recall correctly the next time I fed it I added some organic rye flour to the mix (as suggested in an entry on Rose’s site) and the very next day it came to life again and it has been doing well ever since. Once my starter would double consistently after about six hours after being fed I began to use it to make bread.Doughadear

Don't get too worried. My first started didn't really bloom until day 6-7. If your weather was coolish or particularly humid as well, it won't be as active. She looks right and fine so just relax and let her do her thing. Doughadear's comment about adding a little smidge of rye flour is dead on as well and don't over feed her trying to get her to triple. First time parents really are nervous nellies ;-)

To be very honest I had a tough time getting my starter at this stage to raise bread, so much trouble I mixed up some yeast sugar water and flour and kneaded into the dough just to get those breads finished. That happened the first two times I tried to use the starter, but I didn't give up and just kept feeding it and for me the third time was the charm, I've never had trouble since. Keep it going it looks GREAT!